Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
A/N: Thanks to hids for beta-ing this time! =D love ya hun! Thanks to Sapphire Water Elf Princess for the help with writing it… and again, a shout out to StarAngel613… lol honey, where are you? This chapter Harry starts to talk again… yes, it's moving along quickly… but meh. Please review… and I hope you like it.
The Return
Chapter Three: Stay
Over the next few days, Hermione had to stay by Harry's side most of the time. When she wasn't with him he would call her name over and over until she made some appearance in the doorway. She also had to bathe him, since he couldn't stand up on his own properly yet. This was done when he was in his boxers.
"You are not to remove those Harry Potter," Hermione said very sternly.
Harry paused in his action and pouted at her, "Hermione," he whined.
"No."
He glared at her and slid down into the full bath.
"Alright," she muttered, dipping a washer into the warm water and covering it in soap as she brought it back out. "Do you feel pain anywhere?" she asked as she began to rub the washer into his shoulders.
Harry pointed at the centre of his chest, at the scar of the handprint. She frowned, "How did you get that scar?"
Harry immediately frowned and didn't make any movement to show her he knew anything. She sighed and continued to wash his back.
"Do you remember anything?" she asked tentatively as she washed the soapy water from his back
Harry's shoulders tensed and he glared at the other end of the bath.
"Alright," she said softly, knowing he either couldn't or wouldn't tell her anything. "Sit back Harry."
He leaned back against the side of the bath and she moved the cloth around to his front. "You'll have to talk about it sooner or later," she said carefully. "You can't keep quiet forever."
"Humph," Harry hummed, crossing his arms grumpily.
"If I'm going to wash you, I need access to your chest Harry," she said irritably, slapping lightly at his arms.
He sat up and uncrossed his arms, glaring straight into her eyes. She held his gaze, glaring back at him. He suddenly moved his hands to her armpits to yank her up into the air, with amazing strength, to pull her on top of him.
"Harry!" she squeaked, struggling against him, making the water splash around. "Stop it!"
"Hermione," he said firmly, moving his hands down to grip at her hips.
She struggled for a moment, trying to tug his hands away from her body, refusing to look at his face. He didn't remove his hands from her and opened his mouth to say something,
"St…"
Hermione stopped struggling and looked at his face, "What did you say?"
Harry screwed his face up and looked as though he was concentrating very hard as he said, "St-stay."
Her eyes widened and she bit her lip. He reached to her hand and placed it on his chest, across his scar again. She frowned slightly as he opened his mouth to say something again,
"Please?"
She relaxed, "You only want to be with me, don't you?"
He nodded and she sighed, "Alright Harry. Should we get out of here?"
He shook his head.
She smiled and rolled her eyes. "Alright."
He sighed happily as she moved to lie next to him, circling her arms around his waist and resting her cheek against the side of his chest. He closed his eyes contentedly and breathed her beautiful scent. The scent that he had longed for these five years past… his Hermione.
---
Over the next couple of days, Harry began to speak longer sentences, although his favourite word still seemed to be Hermione. He still couldn't walk on his own, so Hermione had to help him into the bathroom to go to the toilet and to bathe. She could at least leave the room for more than five minutes now that Harry seemed to understand what was going on around him a little better.
"Your wounds are all healed up Harry," she said thoughtfully one afternoon as she moved her hands across his abdomen.
"I know," he said, watching her move her hands further up his body to his chest.
"But this one," she said, frowning slightly as she placed a hand over the scar on the centre of his chest, "Are you going to tell me where you got this scar Harry?"
He frowned and looked away from her, moving his hands up to hers to push her off him slightly.
"If you're ever going to get well again, I need to know why you have this."
"Then I suppose I'll never get well again Hermione," he answered curtly, crossing his arms and half covering the scar.
"Do you know how you got it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"I do," he said, chewing on his bottom lip, "but I can't put it into words."
She sighed and moved back from him, "When you can, make sure you tell me. I think this scar is the only thing stopping you from being the way you were."
Harry shrugged, glaring down at his lap.
Hermione rolled her eyes and stood up off the bed. "I'm going to get a drink. Do you want one?"
He nodded.
"Alright," she said, sighing.
She left the room to go to the kitchen to pour her and Harry a glass of water and paused at the sink, leaning on it heavily, her eyes closed. She felt her throat become constricted as tears threatened to roll down her cheeks and she made a small irritated sound. She opened her eyes, blinking very hard to make sure that no tears could escape the corners of her eyes.
"I'm okay," she muttered to herself, sniffing slightly. She picked the glasses of water up and carried them back to her room. As she approached the door however, she heard a loud crack and then a strangled shout. "Harry!" she called, dropping the glasses and drawing her wand swiftly. She ran into her room to find Harry standing up on the bed, holding his arm out at an upside down Mark.
"Hermione!" Mark exclaimed, looking rather scared.
"Oh God," Hermione muttered, watching Harry with wide eyes. "Harry, let him down!"
"He sneaked up on me," Harry said, watching Mark through narrowed eyes. "He wants something."
"Just let him down and I'll deal with him," Hermione said irritably. "Gently!" she added quickly as she watched Harry get ready to just drop Mark.
Harry glared at Mark as he lowered him slowly to the ground, letting go and making Mark land on his arse ungracefully. Hermione glared at Harry and was swiftly at Mark's side,
"Are you alright?"
Mark glared up at Harry, who was still standing on his bed his eyes narrowed down at the intruder, and said, "I'm fine. But I thought dear old Harry here couldn't speak?"
"Well, now I can. Get out," Harry said, rather rudely.
"Harry!" Hermione scolded him, walking to him and smacking his arm. "Get back into the bed."
"But -"
An angry look told him to think better of retorting, and he let his legs fold down to the bed and crawled under the covers.
"I would like to see you outside," Hermione said through gritted teeth, taking hold of Mark's collar and dragging him out of the room. After slamming the door behind her and pushing him all the way out to the living room, she began to yell at him. "What the bloody hell did you think you were doing?! He could have killed you!"
"No he couldn't have," Mark scoffed, waving a hand in disbelief.
"He just dangled you upside down you idiot. I'm pretty damn sure he could have ripped you limb from limb or something," she seethed, her face going slightly red. "Why did you apparate straight into my room anyway?"
"I wanted to say hello," he grumbled, crossing his arms.
"You apparate into the living room to do that, when I'm in my bedroom too," she said tersely. "Why were you in there?"
Mark shifted his body weight nervously and avoided her eye, "No reason."
Hermione breathed in very slowly through her mouth and then out through her nose, "Why were you in there?"
"Well… I sort of… my boss dragged the thing about Potter out of me…"
"Oh no," Hermione groaned, closing her eyes and turning away from him. "You are certainly not getting a story out of him now," she added harshly over her shoulder.
"Why not?" he asked in surprise.
"Hmm, okay Mark. You sneaked up on Harry and he certainly doesn't trust you now. You told your boss about him when I specifically told you not to tell anyone. And you obviously don't trust me," she said, spinning around to glare at him and counting them off her fingers.
"No! I trust you," he said immediately, "I don't trust him."
"He's been confined to bed!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in indignation. "And you know I don't cheat or lie, Mark."
"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't've -"
"Yes. I'm glad you realise that. Now, out you go."
"But Hermione -"
"Out," she repeated, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Alright. I'll owl you -"
"No, you won't," she cut across him. "Leave."
He sighed and said, "Sorry," before disapparating.
Hermione glared at the spot he'd been at for a moment, before turning around to walk back into her room. Harry watched her slam her door behind her and glare angrily at him. He glared back at her,
"He wanted something," he said stubbornly.
"You may be right about that, but you didn't have to levitate him upside down!" she exclaimed, frowning and crossing her arms.
"What else was I supposed to do? Let him apparate in and do something to me?"
"Mark may be an idiot but he wouldn't do anything to you," Hermione said through gritted teeth.
"Why was he in here then?"
"He's a reporter -"
"It's good that I levitated him upside down then. Reporters are no good busy -"
She frowned and cut across him, "Do you think I've forgotten all that crap Rita Skeeter wrote about you? I know how you feel about reporters, which is why I kicked him out."
"Fine," Harry muttered, sliding down in the bed to lie on his side.
"How did you know he was coming?" Hermione asked, moving to sit on the bed next to him.
"I don't know, I just did," Harry said stubbornly, glaring up at her. "Are you two broken up then?"
"I don't know and don't change the subject."
"Hermione, he's the one who barged in on me! Why aren't you trying to hex him?!"
"Because I want to know how on earth you knew he was coming!" she exclaimed, resisting the urge to smack his shoulder out of frustration.
"I don't know!" Harry replied, his face going slightly red.
Hermione groaned in frustration and raised her hands to her eyes and rubbed them. "How do you think I feel Harry?" she asked suddenly, lowering her hands to gaze at him, "You just appear out of nowhere and you refuse to tell me anything and we just move on? You're acting as though you just left yesterday!"
"It feels as though I only left yesterday!"
"Well, you didn't," she said firmly, feeling tears creep to the corners of her eyes. She wiped them away furiously and continued, "It was five years ago Harry. It's taken me five years to get over your death and when you just appeared it brought everything back."
"I couldn't help it," he grumbled, glaring at her.
"I know you couldn't," she replied, sighing. "Just think about how I feel. Seeing you again just reminds me of everything I lost because of Voldemort."
Harry was silent, looking down at his lap now.
"Look, when you do know what happened, I want you to tell me," she said softly, standing up. She began to leave the room but Harry called her back,
"Hermione!"
She turned around to see him trying to get out of the bed. She rushed back to him and helped him to his feet. "What is it?"
He pulled her into a very tight hug and rested his head on the side of hers. "If you tell me what I've missed these past five years, I'll tell you what happened after I defeated Voldemort," he said softly to her ear, closing his eyes and breathing her smell in.
"Why haven't you told me before now?" she asked, her voice wavering slightly with emotion.
"I didn't want you to know," he replied, pulling back to look at her face. "I didn't want to scare you."
She gave him a small smile and turned her head to rest it upon his chest, "I honestly don't care if you do," she said softly, closing her eyes. "I just want to know why you were gone."
Harry nodded, "Can we go out into the living room then? I think I've had enough of the bedroom for now."
Hermione sniffed slightly and nodded, pulling back from him. "Can you walk?"
He shrugged, "I can try."
So they made their way out of her bedroom and to the living room, Harry leaning heavily on Hermione.
"Phew," Hermione said as she helped Harry lower himself down onto the couch. "You're heavy."
Harry laughed softly and rolled his eyes up at her, "You're just weak Hermione."
She poked her tongue out at him and said, "You're just fat Harry."
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Am not."
Hermione smiled and said, "Moving on, do you want a blanket? You're still only in your trousers."
"No, it's quite warm in here," Harry said, shrugging slightly. "Sit down and I want to hear all about these past five years. What happened after Voldemort died?"
---
To be continued…